[isamu]

In my continuing quest to get up to speed with you guys and your knowledge of all things audio and headphones, I have stumbled upon a question I cannot find the answer to.

I've seen the term "balanced" or "balanced cabling" when referring to headphones. I would like to know what does this mean exactly? I thought most headphones where already "balanced" but went under another name called "stereo"? Isn't stereo sound balanced sound? How does a balanced recabled headphone benefit the sound? Is it like two stereos in each ear cup or something?

Please explain....

 

[t10]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=183323

Great read

 

[vcoheda]

http://www.headphone.com/products/fa...ed-headphones/

 

[rune-san]

Thank you so much for telling me that! I've always wanted to know this but was shy to ask ^_^*

 

[M0T0XGUY]

Not to be nitpicky, but technically speaking, there is no such thing as a balanced headphone, because headphones can't accommodate the separate ground cable necessary to be considered truly balanced. "Balanced" headphones as the market has named them, will sound better than single ended ones, though, because each driver has an independent audio signal fed to it; just keep in mind that you aren't buying a balanced product in its literal meaning.

 

[ericj]

You could run a braid shield to each earcup - ground it on the amp end and leave it floating on the headphone end -- which is the proper way to shield things, btw.

But it wouldn't get you much.

in headphonespeak, "balanced" means differential-drive push-pull. Which is all well and good, but i don't know what's balanced about it.

And for some people, it only means dual-mono with active ground on both monoblocks, which is a distant cousin to differential drive.